Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04COLOMBO291
2004-02-23 11:04:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Colombo
Cable title:  

OFFICIAL INFORMAL NUMBER 028 (02/23/04)

Tags:  AMGT CE MV LTTE 
pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000291 

SIPDIS

OFFICIAL INFORMAL

FOR SA/INS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/14
TAGS: AMGT CE MV LTTE
SUBJECT: OFFICIAL INFORMAL NUMBER 028 (02/23/04)

Classified by DCM James F. Entwistle for reasons 1.5 (b) and
(d).

CONTENTS: No Meeting with CBK
- Ambassador and Team to Maldives
- Indian High Commissioner Views
- Donor Lunch
- Parliamentary Election Update
- Translating the HRR Into Local Languages?
- DMI? PSI?
- Schlosser Visit

No Meeting with CBK
-------------------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000291

SIPDIS

OFFICIAL INFORMAL

FOR SA/INS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/14
TAGS: AMGT CE MV LTTE
SUBJECT: OFFICIAL INFORMAL NUMBER 028 (02/23/04)

Classified by DCM James F. Entwistle for reasons 1.5 (b) and
(d).

CONTENTS: No Meeting with CBK
- Ambassador and Team to Maldives
- Indian High Commissioner Views
- Donor Lunch
- Parliamentary Election Update
- Translating the HRR Into Local Languages?
- DMI? PSI?
- Schlosser Visit

No Meeting with CBK
--------------


1. (C) The Ambassador's call on the President did not come
through February 23. She was up-country most of the day.
We will reinvigorate the request when the Ambassador returns
from the Maldives (see below) and in the meantime brief some
of her key advisors.

Ambassador and Team to Maldives
--------------


2. (U) Ambassador departs Tuesday morning Feb 24 for
Maldives. He will do calls in Male on Feb 25, visit a non-
resort atoll on Feb 26 day, then host our national day
reception Feb 26 evening. Also in Male for all or part of
that time will be Datt Rich Girven, GSO Jim Stover, PAO
Bruce Lohof, Econ/Comm Dean Thompson, and Consular Dave
Williams.

Ambassador will stay on in Maldives Friday through Sunday
Feb 29, back afternoon of Feb 29. He will be available by
cellphone while in the Maldives. DCM will be in Colombo
throughout.

Indian High Commissioner Views
--------------


3. (C) Ambassador had lunch with Indian High Commissioner
Sen on Feb 20, where Sen was quite candid (and sometimes
even believable). According to Sen:

--The dissolution of Parliament is Ranil's fault. He was not
flexible enough, should have taken the deal (which Sen was
brokering) to accept control of military theater commands.

--Nonetheless, a CBK victory would be a disaster and the JVP
was awful. Therefore India was actively working to help
Ranil. India had convinced Ceylon Workers Congress leader
Thondaman to cooperate with Ranil, and had done the same
with Muslim leader Athaullah. (Comment: Next day's papers
showed a smiling Athaullah signing cooperation MOU with CBK.
Guess Sen's powers of persuasion are not as powerful as he
thought.)

--Impossible to predict the election.

--After the election, India should tell GSL (whoever that

is) and LTTE to make an agreement and stick to it. If
either side broke the agreement, India would come down on
them militarily!

--When reminded India had tried this before (IPKF in 1980's)
with dismal results, Sen said Indian capabilities were much
better now, and beside, the IPKF had had the Tigers on the
run when they were betrayed by VP Singh who agreed to pull
them out. A few more months and they could have finished the
job.

Throughout Sen evinced that disdain for lesser creatures
(the Sri Lankans) that those who have sat through
interminable lectures in South Block are all too familiar
with. At various points he quoted Abraham Lincoln, Tacitus,
Browning and Yeats.

Donor Lunch
--------------


4. (SBU) Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattsker hosted donor
lunch Feb 23 following his return from Washington co-chairs
meeting. Highlights:

ELECTIONS:

--All present agreed we should be neutral with regard to
parties in current election, but not to policies. Emphasize
need to support peace process.

--Brattsker would travel to Kilinocchi on Feb 25 to brief
LTTE on co-chairs meeting.

--LTTE has indicated they want polls open in the Vanni, said
would welcome international and local observers. Ambassador
stressed need to tell LTTE they needed to act properly and
not coerce nominating process. Elections would appear fair
but be meaningless if only one Tamil candidate (hand-picked
by Tigers with others intimidated into not running) were
available to voters. Brattsker said he would deliver the
message about the need for "political space."

--EU will decide in next two days whether or not to send
monitoring team. If decision is yes, members will start to
arrive shortly. Commonwealth also deciding.

--Other donors have contributed funds to Pafrel and other
local election monitors. Gap still exists and US hopes to
fill it.

--Donors agreed to coordinate their local staff monitoring
so as to avoid overlap.
ASSISTANCE

--IMF and World Bank will have Board meetings end of next
week, expect to issue statements on Sri Lanka referring to
peace process and economic policies. Statements will be
"forthright." Good opportunity to make impact in Sri Lanka.
Donors who want input into the statement(s) should give
their suggestions early to Fund/Bank staff.

--Ambassador pushed once again a public relations strategy
which would include release of assistance figures for 2003
(and perhaps earlier years) showing over $1 billion
disbursed in '03, with significant amounts to North and
East. World Bank agreed to set up an event, with
participation by all three MDB's and co-chairs.

--In recent visits to European capitals, LTTE pushed for
direct funding. All donors (Netherlands, Sweden,
Switzerland, Italy, Norway) told them this was impossible,
wanted a NERF-like mechanism.

--World Bank has proposed to Tigers a NERF-like mechanism in
which LTTE, NGO's and GSL could each put up development
proposals to a World Bank Secretariat. Proposals would need
to be agreed by both sides, after which they would be
evaluated for Trust Fund funding by a Donor Coordinating
Committee. (US would not participate as we would not put
money into such a Trust Fund. Idea is still important to us
as it would allow other funding to move forward.)

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION UPDATE
--------------


5. (C) FYI. Politicians continued their maneuverings
over the weekend and we offer below the latest tidbits
on the upcoming parliamentary election:

-- With the week-long nomination period officially
ending on February 24, parties are busy finalizing
their candidates for each electoral district and the
national list. We will let you know who has aligned
with whom, once the dust settles.

-- You will see our front-channel today on weekend
changes and cross overs that occurred in the Muslim
bloc.

-- Ronnie de Mel, a senior MP who was most recently in
the President's party, created news again on February
21 by announcing switching parties and would contest
his southern electoral district as a United National
Party (UNP) candidate. We had earlier reported de
Mel's vehement denial of rumors indicating he would
cross over to the UNP. President Kumaratunga was
apparently not too pleased with de Mel's decision,
wishing him well in his "checker political endeavors."

-- The chief monks of two leading Buddhist sects,
Asgiriya and Malwatte, in the country have publicly
expressed their disapproval for the Sihala Urumaya
party's intention to field a Buddhist monk-only slate
for parliamentary elections. Citing their distress and
concern, the two Buddhist leaders warned that monks
should act in advisory and spiritual capacities to
those who govern. (POL)

TRANSLATING THE HRR INTO LOCAL LANGUAGES?
--------------


6. (SBU) We noticed that the cable highlighting public
diplomacy methods related to the release of the annual
human rights report (State 37213) mentions a new
Congressional requirement that all reports be
translated into the local languages. For us, that
means Sinhala and Tamil for the Sri Lankan report and
Dhivehi for the Maldivian one. Would the bureau please
check with DRL to confirm this requirement, as well as
SA/PD to see if they are involved in any translations.
Thanks. (POL)

DMI? PSI?
--------------

7. (C) We were wondering about the Department's
Dangerous Material Initiative (DMI),as outlined in
State 33733. It is unclear whether it is an action
request for all posts, or only Bangkok, Beijing,
Singapore, and New Delhi. Further, we are curious as
to how this complements the on-going Proliferation
Security Initiative (PSI) that the Department is also
overseeing. Finally, we heard from our counterparts at
the French Embassy that they have a joint demarche
instruction on PSI to be done possibly with us and/or
the EU members. We have not seen anything here on that
front. Would the bureau please check if there is any
joint demarche on the horizon? (POL)

Schlosser Visit
--------------


8. (U) We're looking forward to seeing John later this
week and have put together an encyclopedic program for
him. (DCM)

LUNSTEAD